Homesickness
by PK-FreezerBurn
Summary: First story. Lucas has been noticing how low-spirited Ness has been, and decides to cheer him up. Sorry, I'm bad at summaries.


**Hello readers! This is my first story, I hope I'm good at this. Before you start I wanna say that this isn't supposed to be a LucasxNess story, but it can if you want it to be. I think I wrote this fairly well... Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Ah, morning. The sun was beginning to rise, the birds started chirping, but that didn't matter since the windows were closed and the curtains were drawn anyway. However, this did not stop a certain blond psychic from stirring lazily on his bed, silently contemplating on whether or not to get up. Usually this psychic, better known as Lucas, was woken by his roommate at the crack of dawn so that neither of them would be late for any of the daily brawls, announcements, and so on.

Lucas sighed softly. Well, it was too late to go back to sleep now. Cracking open an eye, he peeked at the clock with blurred vision. 'Five more minutes, then I'll get up...' He closed his eyes, staying quiet, before snapping them back open and shooting up into a sitting position. "Oh crap!"

Scrambling out of his bed (aka getting tangled up in his sheets and tripping before standing back up), Lucas hurried over to his roommate who was still sleeping in a bed adjacent to his own. The blankets covered up a lump that could only be determined to be said roommate. Lucas could only sigh in relief that he didn't ditch him. Well, of course he wouldn't ditch him. He did nothing wrong, right?

But a better question is, why isn't he up? How the hell does he even wake up this early, does he use an alarm? How come he's never heard it? Whatever.

A rather pale hand rested gently upon the figure before shaking it. Not vigorously, yet not necessarily gentle shaking either. "Ness?" Lucas whispered. "Ness, hey. It's 8:15. Breakfast is gonna end soon." Another shake was given to the lump of blankets. "Get up."

Almost immediately the blanket-lump-monster rolled over painfully slow and gave a soft sigh, indicating that he was waking up. Afterwards Mr. Lumpyblanket yawned and threw the thick blankets off himself, revealing to be the one and only Ness! Who would have thought.

"Mhm… What's up?" he asked before yawning a second time.

"Get up, come on! We're gonna be late.""Late for what now?"

"F-"

"OH. Oh oh okay yeah I know." Ness lazily sat up on his bed and began to stretch. "... What time is it?"

Lucas gave Ness a stern look, given with the little patience everyone usually had in the morning, and pointed at the clock.

"Eight seventeen… Yeah alright. I'll be down in a sec. Later man."

Lucas heaved a sigh in annoyance. It was too early for the blond to deal with Ness' nonchalant attitude. "Yeah, see you." And with that he grabbed a fresh set of clothes and headed for the bathroom.

Yet Lucas couldn't help but notice the somewhat sullen expression his roommate wore as he remained on his bed.

* * *

"And, and then… pfffteheh," Toon Link paused to giggle at his story before resuming. "When I knocked out Pikachu, he made the funniest noise! Like..." He was unable to elaborate due to bursting into a fit of immature giggles afterwards, pausing to try to mimic the sound, and laughing even harder.

The Pokemon Trainer (What was his name? Red?) rolled his eyes and went back to eating his breakfast. Lucas raised an eyebrow and nodded to let the other know he was still listening. "That was a nice story, Link."

At this point the swordsman had finally ceased his laughter and nodded. "Eh, thanks but really you should've been there, Lucas. Hilarious, I'm telling you." He took a sip of his milk. Of course that earned him a milk mustache, but Lucas didn't really think it was necessary to point it out.

"Speaking of things to laugh at," Toon Link continued. "Where's Ness?" He then grinned mischievously.

It was Lucas' turn to roll his eyes. "Wow."

"Okay okay sorry I guess. But seriously where is the guy, its getting pretty quiet in here."

Lucas rested his head on one palm and began stirring his almost soggy cereal absentmindedly. "He woke late. I hope he turns up soon, though. He'll miss breakfast at this rate."

The shorter blond grinned. "Hah, yeah. A hungry Ness is a cranky Ness, amirite?"

Lucas began to grin as well, about to agree, but then frowned afterwards instead.

"Hm…" He took a bite of his cereal, then grimaced slightly. Soggy already, huh? "He seemed sorta out of it this morning. You think anything happened?" Silently Lucas hoped that he didn't do anything to upset the other psychic. It was horrible to accidentally upset someone, it really was.

Toon Link raised an eyebrow in curiosity before shrugging. "Beats me. He probably didn't sleep well or something."

"I dunno..." Lucas' voice was practically dripping with skepticism, yet when he saw the younger boy glance wildly between something (or someone?) behind him he immediately zipped his lips.

"Oh, hey Ness! Where've you been, buddy?" Toon Link smiled at the highly skilled psychic across from him, then made hand gestures at the boy, as if to rush him. "C'mon and eat something dude, unless you wanna starve today."

"Nah man, I'm takin' my time." Ness sighed and plopped onto the seat next to the blond psychic. "Got no brawls for today." Ah. So that's why he seemed so carefree this morning. "Uhh, Toon Link?" Ness continued, leaning back in his seat and pointing at his mouth. "You've got a little..."

"Huh?" Toon Link paused before realizing what Ness had meant. He furiously wiped at his mouth, embarrassed.

Lucas chuckled at the swordsman before turning to Ness. "Did you forget to set your alarm or something?"

Ness, pulling out a water bottle from his worn out backpack, simply shrugged.

"You don't know?" Lucas asked. "You know, you could've still set the alarm. We almost woke up late."

"I know." the other stated. "I never set my alarm, dude. I just wake up by myself, is' all."

Lucas closed his mouth and blinked. Well in hindsight, it was a bit silly to automatically assume that Ness set the alarm to wake up. He's probably just a light sleeper. And here you are, making assumptions when he slept in only once, Lucas. He started to feel his face grow hot. That was embarrassing to say the least.

For a few minutes the table was silent, drowned out by the surrounding early morning murmurs. Toon Link sighed rather loudly. Not even Ness could conquer this silence. Boredom had begun to ensue once more.

Luckily for the young swordsman, the intercom had come to the rescue. A deep, low voice had made the murmurs of the the cafeteria die down. "Attention everyone," the voice began. "Morning brawls will begin in 10 minutes. Please be prepared to fight at the assigned time." The voice was none other than Master Hand's, who was obviously responsible for the whole brawling experience in the first place. "The following people must be at the designated brawling area when that time has come: Fox, Pikachu, Samus and Toon Link. That is all." And thus ended the daily morning announcements.

The cafeteria began to steadily grow louder and restless, with the brawlers beginning to dispute to their necessary destinations. Toon Link grinned, quickly finishing his milk, then dashed out the door with yet another milk mustache. He then started blurted out taunts at the certain yellow Pokémon. ("Ready for round two, pipsqueak?"). It was certainly a sight to see.

"Heheh. Who do you think'll win, Ne- Huh? Ness?" Lucas blinked and glanced at the now empty seat where his best friend once sat at. Twisting his body around, Lucas scanned the room to search for the raven haired boy. Oh! There he is. Ness was exiting the cafeteria. But… he just got here! Why so soon?

Lucas jumped out of his chair frantically and rushed over to his friend. "Wait, hey!" he called out, slowing his pace when he finally caught up."Where are you going? I thought you said you had no brawls?"

Ness turned to face the blond and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

"Where are you going?" Lucas repeated.

"Room."

"Why?"

"I got nothin' to do."

Lucas paused, the scowled momentarily. Why is Ness acting so… apathetic? "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you tired?"

"No."

"Are you sick?"

Ness shook his head. "No and if I was, I'd just heal myself." Oh. Duh.

"Then… What's wrong?" he repeated.

Ness sighed impatiently before gazing down at his red converse. "Nothin', Luke."

Literally nothing could have been more suspicious in Lucas' eyes. Yet he continued to press on. "You sure?"

"_Yeah_. I'm sure."

"Alright…" Silence hung over them for a few moments. Ness then concluded that the conversation was over and turned on his heels, exiting.

"Uh… Wait!"

"_What._ IS it, Lucas?" Ness halted and spun around to face the other psychic once more. Lucas unintentionally shrunk back. What got Ness into such a foul mood? Uh, maybe it was your constant pestering, Lucas. You naive fool.

"If you've got nothing to do today, uh," Lucas felt embarrassment creep up on him, but quickly fought it back. "We can, like, train together. Or something." Embarrassment unfortunately won the battle and Lucas felt his face grow warm because of it.

"Yeah, but don't you got any brawls for today or somethin'?" Ness questioned.

"No, not until later." Lucas replied. "We have plenty of time, if you want."

Ness hesitated, most likely contemplating on whether to train with his roommate or not.

"I-If you want! You don't have to, y'know?" Lucas elaborated.

"Nah nah, it's cool. Let's go." Ness turned to face the doorway for the umpteenth time, ready to head to the training rooms.

"Wait, right now?" That was obviously a rhetorical question. It earned Lucas a blank stare from Ness, who was waiting outside the doorway. "Uh, nevermind, let's go."

* * *

"Ready?"

"Um… No, hold on, I need my stick."

"_Lucas!_" Ness whined, throwing his hands up. "If you're gonna invite me to do somethin', at least be ready to do it!"

"Hold ON a second, jeez. I've got the stick now, see?" Lucas held up his baseball bat.

Ness made a note to himself to tell the blond what baseball even was. "NOW are you ready?" Ness huffed.

"Yes."

"Okay…" Both of the psychics immediately went into a battle stance, bats in hand and PSI ready to use. Before the battle even commenced, Lucas knew he was pretty much done for. Ness was a skilled veteran, and just because this was a simple sparring didn't mean he'd go easy on him. Similar abilities or not.

Seconds past.

"... Go!"

Ness and Lucas dashed at each other, only to meet by clashing their weapons together. The brawl had only begun and tension had already started to rise. Simultaneously the boys stepped back, and Lucas gathered a small amount of PSI in his hand. However, he was unable to counter quickly enough because Ness had managed to swing his bat and hit the blond square on.

"Oof!" He was fast! The blow had caused Lucas to skid back a few feet, but fortunately he was quick enough to recover and throw up a barrier before Ness swung down again. The collision between the bat and PSI barrier made a loud, startling noise that cause the dark haired boy take a step back in caution. An opening! Lucas began to concentrate once more, summoning a fairly large snowflake and maneuvering it towards Ness. "PK Freeze!"

The aiming was rather poor because of the short amount of time Lucas was given, and Ness easily dodged the psychic attack. "PK Fire!" A lightning bolt shot towards Lucas, only to absorbed by his PSI Magnet. From across the stage Lucas could see Ness' expression of pure impatience with the battle thus far.

"PK Freeze!"

"PK Flash!"

Both offensive attacks hovered dangerously across the air, colliding with neither of the boys, but each other. The PK Flash unfortunately detonated as the PK Freeze came in contact with it, causing them both to disappear harmlessly in sparks of jade and cerulean. It was beautiful and disappointing all at once.

This was getting nowhere. A small sense of achievement was felt by Lucas for not, you know, being knocked out at this point, yet the two couldn't continue fighting forever.

Footsteps snapped Lucas out of his thoughts. It was Ness, rushing at him recklessly with his bat in hand. The attack was too obvious; he was going to bash Lucas over the head. Lucas tightened the grip on his own bat, swinging back, and…

SMASH! Lucas for a change was faster and was able to knock Ness back several feet with a single blow. The violet-eyed psychic skidded and stumbled back, quickly recovering near the ledge of the stage. This was Lucas' chance for a final blow, to win the sparring match.

"PK Freeze!" Once again Lucas had summoned pure ice with his abilities, materializing it from thin air, and guided it systematically towards his temporary opponent. Gosh he loved this attack.

However, Ness hadn't budged. He seemed to be in a daze, unaware of his now inevitable defeat. He wasn't even making an attempt to avoid the projectile. Is he alright?

Yet it was too late to ask- Lucas' PK Freeze had already hit Ness dead-on, knocking off the stage. Lucas had already won.

The blond just stood there, wondering what the heck just happened, before snapping out of his stupor and quickly exiting the stage to find his friend. "Ness? … Ness?" he frantically scanned the area for a red cap, striped shirt, anything that stood out for him. "Ness!" Lucas eventually spotted the shorter boy and rushed over to him. "Hey, uhm, you okay?"

Ness was avoiding eye contact, probably out of the humiliation of losing. But Ness isn't really the 'sore-loser' type, as far as Lucas knew. "Yeah, I'm alright." Ness blandly reassured.

"Did… DId I hit you too hard?"

"No! It wasn't your fault, Luke. I just…" Ness trailed off, slumping his shoulders and gazing down at his red sneakers again. "I guess I wasn't into the battle, is'all."

The two stood in a rather thick silence, glancing at anything or anyone besides each other.

"... Well, I'm headin' back to the room. Catch y'later, man." Ness awkwardly waved goodbye to his roommate and began to walk the opposite direction.

"Uhm, oh. See you, Ness." Lucas watched as Ness headed towards their room, then heaved a sigh.

* * *

Hours had passed since Ness had retired to their room. During that time, Lucas was called down for his battle against Olimar (and lost. Oh well, better luck next time), grabbed a bite to eat, and was now sitting on one of the several couches with Toon Link. The swordsman was currently complaining about how it was 'totally unfair' that Pikachu 'knocked him out with a cheap move'. Aka getting his ass served impeccably on a fine platter by a yellow mouse.

"I mean, I was totally going to win at that point! But noooo, Pikachu had to run up and knock me out. It was my last life, too!" Toon Link babbled, not really aware that Lucas was barely paying attention. "I gotta get him back, maybe a prank or something. Hey Lucas, want to help me place a bucket of water on the doo- Hey. Lucas?"

Lucas blinked and glanced at the other boy. "What?"

"I said did you want to help me put a bucket of water on the door?"

"Uhm, maybe later. Just try not to take this kind of stuff too far, Link, alright?"

Toon Link shrugged. "Whatever. How long have you been ignoring me, huh? Am I that boring to you?"

"No, no! I wasn't trying to, I swear. I was just wondering," he fumbled with his hands. "Do you think anything happened to Ness?"

"You already asked me something like this this morning. And I said, 'maybe he didn't sleep well.' Remember?"

"Oh, right."

"Why?" Toon Link then asked. "What he do?"

"He didn't do anything, it's just, uh," Lucas had a hard time explaining this. "He… lost a sparring match and looked pretty sad."

"Uh, so? Did you not just hear me complain about my loss?"

"No I-I mean-"

"Come ON Lucas-"

"No! Listen," Lucas huffed before continuing. "He seemed more, like, miserable."

"Ah… So what do you want me to do."

"_Link!_"

"Okay! Okay, yeesh." Toon Link shrugged and scratched the back of his head, thinking. "Maybe you can… get him something to cheer him up?"

"No… I mean yes! That's a great idea." Lucas smiled softly. "Maybe I can give him some of that uhm, what's the word…"

"Some what?"

"That brown stuff that people like."

"... What?"

"You know! Like that brown chalk thing." Lucas elaborated.

"Lucas. What the HELL are you talking about."

"The- That stuff that people eat! The rectangles!"

"Oh my god. You mean chocolate?" Toon Link began to snicker.

"Yes, chalk-let. Everyone likes that stuff, right?" Lucas frowned when the younger boy only laughed in response. "Right?"

"Yeah they do. Pffteheheh, oh my god."

"Where do you get it?"

"The _vending_ machines, Lucas."

"Oh… can I borrow a dollar?"

"What? No get your own cash. This is 100% hard earned money."

"Come on! Please? I'll pay you back!" Lucas pleaded. "Its not even for me, come on, pleeaaaaase-"

"Alright! Okay, jeez." Toon Link scowled and dug into his pockets (he has pockets, right?) and pulled out a wrinkled dollar bill. "Go nuts."

"Yes! Thank you!" Lucas accepted the dollar with a grin and pocketed it before standing up. "Later, Toon Link!"

"Yeah yeah, later Luke." Toon Link grumbled and sunk into the couch stubbornly, turning his attention back to the television.

Lucas exited the room and began to head for his new destination: the cafeteria. It's probably pretty empty, since lunch had just come and gone and dinner wouldn't be for a couple more hours. It didn't matter, though. At least he knew how to use vending machines.

Pushing the double doors open, Lucas paced towards the single vending machine in the whole cafeteria. "Please have that chalk stuff." he silently pleaded.

And indeed there was that chalk stuff. There was two slots for it, actually. One had almonds, while the other was just regular chocolate.

"Hm…" Lucas wasn't sure if Ness had a food allergy (then again, Ness ate pretty much anything), but better safe than sorry is what he always said. He entered the dollar into the machine and punched in the code, watching in anticipation as the bar fell from it's slot. Victory!

Lucas bent down to pick up the bar, then pocketed it. Now to stop by his room. Hopefully Ness wasn't sleeping. It was only, like, six o'clock though. No worries.

The blond trekked down the hallways, occasionally waving to those who passed by with a quiet "hello." He turned one corner after the other, and soon enough Lucas had reached his and Ness' room. No sounds came from the room, so he assumed Ness wasn't playing any video games or watching the happy boxes. (What were those called? Televisions? Lucas tried his best to avoid them).

A pale hand reached up and twisted the doorknob, opening the door slowly so he wouldn't startle his roommate. He was met with darkness. Not even the lamp was on. Did Ness really fall asleep?

"Hey, Ness?" Lucas called out softly. "You awake?" He was greeted with silence. Guess not. However the timid blond pressed on. "You… awake Ness?" he repeated. He walked further into the bedroom, using his memory of the room's layout to find the nightstand. Patting here and there, Lucas successfully found the lamp's switch and turned it on, illuminating the small room and revealing that his best friend was indeed there. He laid under his covers with only tufts of dark hair peeking out.

Lucas observed his roommate silently. His body was rather still, yet his breathing didn't seem too steady. He was awake, he concluded.

"Ness, hey…" Lucas closed the distance between him and the bed, gently shaking the figure like he did that same morning. "You're gonna miss dinner if you're gonna sleep all day. Are you awake?" To Lucas' surprise, Ness tensed up and nodded from beneath his blankets.

"Are you sick?" the boy asked tentatively.

Ness shook his head from under the covers as a response.

"You tired?"

He shook his head again.

Lucas looked down and studied his shoelaces, then back at his best friend before kneeling down. "... Are you okay?"

This time the other psychic didn't respond; at least, not immediately. Lucas anxiously waited for his friend to respond, afraid that he might of said something wrong and offended the other boy. After a few seconds, Ness simply uncovered his face to make proper eye contact with the blond. Lucas couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

Ness' eyes were red and puffy, his cheeks were flushed, and he wore such a sullen expression that caused Lucas' heart to ache. He was crying. Ness looked at the floor, probably embarrassed to be caught like this.

A million questions ran through Lucas' head. Did he offend Ness? Was he too rough during their training? Why was he crying? Guilt began to well up inside the taller psychic.

Without really thinking, Lucas scooted up next to Ness and gently wrapped his arms around him, silently comforting the boy just like his mother would do years ago if he or his brother had a nightmare. And, almost instantly, Ness tightly embraced the blond and buried his face into the other's shoulder, misery seeming to come right back. Lucas practically felt his heart rip in two when he felt hot tears stain his t-shirt.

The two sat together like this, the room's silence being broken occasionally by Ness' sniffles.

After a little while, Lucas peeked at the other boy and whispered, "Do you… want to tell me what's the matter, Ness?"

This time, though, Ness finally spoke up. "... I miss home."

Lucas blinked. "Hm?"

Ness stopped hugging the blond and looked away, almost in a 'you wouldn't understand' kind of way. "I dunno man, I just… I can't even talk or fight or do anything without thinking about my sister or my mom, and I know this is really lame of me. I mean, crying about this kind of stuff? I gotta pull myself together." He looked down, going quiet again.

"What? No, Ness," Lucas began. "Its alright to cry sometimes, I mean… Like, there's nothing wrong with that."

Ness looked up.

"I mean, uh, everyone cries, you know?" Lucas was having a difficult time comforting Ness. "Like… uh, it's alright to uh…" Lucas failed to make a coherent response and ended his sentence with some incomprehensible noises.

However this actually made Ness snicker. "I appreciate your effort."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Whatever- Oh! Ness, here, I got you something."

"You did?"

"Yeah! Here- Oh shhhhoot!" Lucas held back saying anything he'd regret. He had pulled out the chocolate bar from his pocket, but it was slightly melted and was squishy to the touch at this point in time. "Its soft now!"

Ness stared at the bar for a few seconds, his facial expression almost unreadable, before looking up at Lucas and grinning childishly. "Butt chocolate."

Lucas paused, then began to giggle. "Oh my gosh... Ness I can't believe you." Yep. That was the Ness that everyone knew and loved.

Ness nodded and accepted the chocolate from his friend. "I'll cherish it, buddy. Don't you ever worry 'bout it, it's safe with me. Until you know, I eat it. Whatevs."

Lucas smiled at the other's sense of humor, then began to fumble with his hands. "Um, but in all seriousness, maybe you should call your mother. Or something."

Ness blinked at Lucas, looked down at the chocolate bar, then back to Lucas before frowning slightly. "I would, man, but I don't have a phone."

"I thought you did?"

"No. Its a receiver phone. I can't use it to call people." Ness stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Lucas stayed quiet for a little while longer before speaking up again. "Maybe Master Hand has one."

Ness stared in anticipation. "You think he'll really let me use it?"

"Mhm! He'll understand, don't worry." the blond reassured.

The other PSI user cracked a small smile and pocketed the half-melted chocolate bar before hopping out of his bed. "B-r-b dude." He said, hurrying out the door.

Lucas could only smile softly.

* * *

Hours later, Lucas was with the Pokemon Trainer, casually chatting and whatnot. (Although Lucas would never admit it directly, he enjoyed spending time with Red because he lets him pet his Pokemon. Red is so cool).

Right now, Red was describing his recent brawl. "And when Ike was about to knock out my Charizard, he tripped! It was freaking hilarious!"

Lucas found himself chuckling, petting the Squirtle on his lap. "Did he now?"

"Yeah! He's probably so embarrassed, though. I won't bring it up." Red grinned in a way, as if saying he actually would bring it up.

Lucas opened his mouth to respond, but a door swinging open cut off his train of thought.

"Hey, I called my mom. Do you guys want some of my cho- Augh!" It was Ness, who was now covered head to toe in water. A bucket laid nearby.

"Oh my god…" The Pokemon Trainer bursted into laughter, holding his stomach in the hilarity. This trumped his story.

"I…! Ness?" Lucas squeaked out.

Toon Link ran in, throwing his hands up in frustration. "What! That wasn't supposed to be for you! Do you KNOW how hard it is to reach to the top of a door? Sorry Ness, let me just clean this up and-"

The next thing everyone knew Toon Link was bashed over the head with a baseball bat.

* * *

**Ta da! First story. I hope you guys liked it. And yeah if some of you noticed, I have a headcanon that Lucas is taller than Ness. I dunno, I like that headcanon.**

**Thanks so much for reading! Review if you want, have a nice day!**

**~PK-FreezerBurn**


End file.
